Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Progress

Hurrah!

Update on the Skoda damage: The dealer is sucking it up and not charging me a penny!
As @NurseHolliday suggested I called the manager straight away last week and he said it would cost them £200 at most to repair so they were minded to let it go as a goodwill measure and because we were "so honest".
He said if there was anything structural it may cost more and that might be a different story.
They confirmed there was no charge today when I spoke to the dealer about some other things.

Result!
Means I can now enjoy the new car: Mini Clubman Cooper.

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Oh excellent! These new Clubmans look bloody great!

I’m just down the road from Chippenham now. Pop in for a Cup of tea and a Cheese sandwich next time.

I am going to have to wait another month or so to get the car down here. No garage doors

Thanks for the offer I’d love to.

I’ve recently over lockdown had impromptu coffee dates with Frome’s new LFGSS resident @Alb when I’ve been passing through

That's a great result and a great colour on the Clubman!

Frome is very near.

Cheers for the suggestions. I'm not too concerned about the cosmetics and wouldn't care about the dent in the roof if it wasn't making it difficult to seal the windscreen. Any ideas how much it would cost to just replace the windscreen so I can get a feeling for that.

It would be pretty annoying to write it off on what seemed to be a minor bump. The furthest it ever goes is about ten miles at a time.

Assuming you don't want to try getting one from a breakers and fitting yourself (tbh I have no idea how possible this is), minimum for a windscreen replacement is going to be over £200.

My concern is that the fitter will rock up, take one look at the dent and say there is no way they can fit a new screen in that.

What's the vehicle worth, in un-crashed form?

Would autoglass or something similar be an option? It's something like a £70 excess and your insurance pays the rest. Obviously it might not be as simple as a normal crack or chip but might be worth a punt?

Bugger. So my rear wheels both need a weld before reconditioning and I won't have the Z4 on a sunny weekend with the country pubs open. A more suspicious person might think the wheel people fancy a runabout for the aforesaid sunny weekend.

I have now had to delay the respray of the front end and the fitting of a new window regulator.

Damn it, I think I'm going a little Dammit.

It's probably worth something like £1k tops uncrashed.

Insurance does have windscreen cover but I think the dent means that you couldn't just replace the screen.

I'm taking it to a garage up the road tomorrow but just trying to get a feeling for what to do.

Have a multi tool that could remove the windscreen then see what the lip is like before replacing screen.

I'm offing my camper van. Love it to bits but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and I sense large bills incoming. It's been astonishingly reliable to date...50k on and off road from Baja to Canada in 5 years and all I've done is tyres, oil, shocks and some suspension bushings. Not bad for a 26 year old lump of bondo and cheap US steel. I shall be very sad when it goes....

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Time for a Dodge Promaster?

What is next?

Double post....

Nah - they're loads of dough and I want a RWD van. I'd have a Transit but they're too expensive secondhand. Current prospect is a Chevy Express 3500. 6lt V8 and after you junk the last 3 rows, you still seat 5 with 2 full size motorbikes and all the camping gear you need in the back.

Chevy Express 3500

Those LWB vans are very different to drive over the shorter pick-up wheelbase of your current model. They are very massively marshmallow-y to drive. Perfect for highway munching but lesser fun the beaten track.

See if you can look for ones with the pop up camping roofs. These are often purchased by retirees and end up getting less use than they expect before selling on.

Inspiration!

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Had a quote for £400 for fixing the dent and windscreen so inclined to go with that. If I'd had a bit more time I may have been inclined to put that towards a new car instead but realistically nothing better than that is really required.

Perfect opportunity imo to cut the roof off and turn it into a hip cabriolet

New car day. Whoooooooosh

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Electric AND French? Brave man.